History articles within Nature Materials

Featured

  • Editorial |

    Prostheses today can trace their roots to the rudimentary designs of the First World War, but since then there have been significant advances that have improved the quality of life of amputees.

  • Q&A |

    Emily Mayhew, a historian within the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London, talks to Nature Materials about the advances that have been made in medicine and, in particular, prosthetics since World War I.

    • Amos Matsiko

  • Editorial |

    Density functional theory, invented half a century ago, now supplies one of the most convenient and popular shortcuts for dealing with systems of many electrons. It was born in a fertile period when theoretical physics stretched from abstruse quantum field theory to practical electrical engineering.

  • Editorial |

    The discovery of catalysts that dictated polymer sterochemistry, which earned a Nobel prize for Karl Ziegler and Giulio Natta 50 years ago, initiated the modern age of controlled polymer synthesis.

  • Editorial |

    The first demonstration of the laser has not only led to a myriad of commercial applications, but fifty years on basic research continues to rejuvenate the fundamental physics of the laser.

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